Earning miles on United flights

MileagePlus award miles

Every time you purchase an eligible fare and travel on flights operated by United or United Express®, you earn award miles that are deposited into your MileagePlus account. How you earn award miles depends on the type of ticket purchased, ticketing airline and operating airline.

MileagePlus members will earn MileagePlus award miles based on the fare​1 and MileagePlus status for the following flights, with some exclusions as listed at the bottom of this page.

Flights operated by United and United Express, and

Flights operated by a Star AllianceTM or MileagePlus partner airline for tickets issued by United (ticket number starting with "016")

Members will earn award miles based on the flight distance2 and the purchased fare class for the following tickets and flights, with some exclusions as listed at the bottom of this page.

For eligible flights that earn award miles based on the fare1, all members will receive five base miles per dollar, and Premier members will earn Premier bonus award miles based on their Premier status on the date of travel as shown below:

MileagePlus status

Base miles earned(based on fare1)

Premier bonus award miles(based on fare1)

Total award miles earned3(based on fare1)

Member

5 × fare

-

5 × fare

Premier Silver

5 × fare

2 × fare

7 × fare

Premier Gold

5 × fare

3 × fare

8 × fare

Premier Platinum

5 × fare

4 × fare

9 × fare

Premier 1K®

5 × fare

6 × fare

11 × fare

Specialty tickets

Certain specialty tickets (including but not limited to unpublished, consolidator/bulk, group, tour and opaque tickets where the fare you paid is not provided to United) will earn award miles based on the flight distance2 and the purchased fare class using the chart below:

Eligible fare classes on specialtytickets for flights operated byUnited or United Express

Base award miles4 earned(based on flight distance2)

Fare class bonus(calculated from base miles4)

J, C, D, Z, P, F, A

100%

50%

Y, B, M

100%

0%

E, U, H, Q, V, W

75%

0%

S, T, L, K, G, N

50%

0%

Premier members are eligible to earn Premier bonus award miles on specialty tickets, in addition to the miles shown in the table above, based upon the member's Premier status on the date of travel and the base miles4 earned.

Additional information

To earn miles for your flight, provide your MileagePlus number when you make your reservation and make sure that it appears on your boarding pass at check-in. The miles you earn for flights operated by United and United Express should credit to your account 48 hours after your travel is completed.

Premier qualifying credits

MileagePlus members flying on United and United Express will earn Premier qualifying credits toward Premier status based on the flight distance2 and purchased fare class, with bonuses for paid United Global FirstSM, United First®, United BusinessFirst®, United Business® or full-fare United Economy® tickets. Premier members are also eligible to earn a minimum of 500 Premier qualifying miles on United and United Express flights.

Eligible purchased fare classes

Premier qualifying miles (PQM)

Premier qualifying segments (PQS)

F, A

150%

1.5

J, C, D, Z, P

150%

1.5

Y, B

150%

1.5

M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, N

100%

1

Members earn Premier qualifying dollars (PQD) for the base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges on eligible flights operated by United and United Express. Certain specialty tickets, including but not limited to unpublished, consolidator/bulk, group, tour and opaque fares, do not earn PQD. You can also earn PQD for Economy Plus® purchases.

The price displayed when purchasing a ticket on united.com includes up to a 7.5% U.S. Federal Transportation Tax on the base amount of the fare on itineraries wholly within the United States. This tax also applies to certain itineraries between the United States and Canada or Mexico. You will not earn PQD or award miles for the full amount of the displayed price for these itineraries because the U.S. Federal Transportation tax is not eligible to earn PQD or miles.

Certain premium cabin flight segments may earn different award miles and Premier qualifying credits than those defined for your ticketed fare class in the chart above (your fare class for each flight segment is displayed during booking and when viewing a ticketed itinerary on united.com). In these cases, earning is based on the first letter of the fare basis code, which may correspond to an economy cabin fare class including Y, B, M, H, Q, U, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, or N. You can determine your fare basis code when booking a reservation on united.com by selecting the Fare Rules and Restrictions link on the itinerary review page prior to purchase.

Codeshare and partner flights: If you purchase a ticket for a flight that is marketed by United but operated by another airline (known as a codeshare flight), the fare class that appears on your ticket may differ from the fare class that the operating airline uses to determine flight miles earned. If a partner flight is not eligible to earn award miles, then it is also not eligible to earn Premier qualifying miles, segments or dollars.

1The fare is the base fare of the ticket plus carrier-imposed surcharges, excluding any government-imposed taxes and surcharges. For tickets purchased in a currency other than U.S. dollars, we will convert the purchase to U.S. dollars using an industry standard exchange rate and then calculate the number of miles you will earn. Please note that the price displayed when purchasing a ticket on united.com includes up to a 7.5% U.S. Federal Transportation Tax on the base amount of the fare on itineraries wholly within the United States. This tax also applies to certain itineraries between the United States and Canada or Mexico. You will not earn PQD or award miles for the full amount of the displayed price for these itineraries because the U.S. Federal Transportation tax is not eligible to earn PQD or miles.

2Flight distance is defined as the miles scheduled for a specific flight, as determined solely by United.

3Members can earn up to a maximum of 75,000 award miles per ticket, excluding Award Accelerator® purchases or bonuses from applicable promotions.

4Base miles are defined as award miles that MileagePlus members earn for travel on flights operated by United, United Express, Star Alliance member airlines or MileagePlus partner airlines, excluding any fare class bonus miles, Premier bonus miles or any other miles earned from promotions or offers.​​​​​